japan

The level of news-frenzy on some of the recent volcanic eruptions has died down, but if you're looking to see information on the many rumbling going on worldwide, look no further. Here is this week's Volcanic Activity Report put together by Sally Kuhn Sennert of the Global Volcanism Program. Highlights - not including Pacaya, Yasur, Tungurahua and our friend in Iceland - include: The eruption in the Marianas apparently came from South Sarigan volcano - at least according to the best guess by folks who work in the Marianas. This submarine volcano apparently shows evidence of young lava flows,…
Hard to believe, but there is other volcano-related news in the world ... So, with all deference to Eyjafjallajokull, here it is: Dome collapse on Colima in Mexico, image taken March 30, 2010. The new Smithsonian/USGS GVP Weekly Volcano Activity Report was issued, with news about increasing signs of activity at Egon in Indonesia, a possible plume at Miyakejima in Japan and more dome growth at Soufriere Hills. A study on the economic effect of a new Vesuvius eruption was released and the finding show the potential for a staggering $24 billion of economic damage directly related to an eruption…
Sakurajima Volcano in Japan, taken from the ISS on February 17. Image courtesy of Soichi Noguchi. Eruptions reader Tim Stone sent me a link to the TwitPic feed for Soichi Noguchi, the Japanese astronaut currently on board of the International Space Station. The space traveller got a shot of Sakurajima from space, showing a beautiful plume drifting off - and great detail of the towns and roads near the volcano. Soichi has some other great shots (and comments to go with them), including my old haunt Seattle (with a comment about Ichiro), Mt. Aso - another Japanese volcano, and the Patagonian…
Two impressive eruptions going on right now: Soufriere Hills erupting on February 11, 2010. Image courtesy of the Montserrat Volcano Observatory. Soufriere Hills just keeps on raising the bar during its new eruptive period. The volcano on Montserrat in the West Indies produced a 15 km / ~45 000 foot ash plume as the summit dome partially collapsed again. It was one of the biggest volcanic events at Soufriere Hills in the last 15 years, with 10-15% of the dome collapsing. One of the regional airlines in the West Indies have had to cancel flights due to the ash that has mainly been heading to…
News for the snowy (well, here) midweek: Lava flows from Kilauea surround an old structure at Royal Gardens in Hawai`i. A hearty thanks to all the Eruptions readers who offered advice on where to find a couple of great volcano videos I've been trying to track down. I think I've found copies I can get a hold of at the USGS and discovered that Discover Your Northwest (formerly the NW Interpretative Assoc.) is expecting to get a DVD version of one of the videos this spring. The folks at the Astronomy Picture of the Day put up this great image of strombolian eruptions and lightning at Sakurajima…
The plume from submarine volcano Fukutoku-Okanoba, erupting in February 2010. Almost a year after the Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha'apai eruption, where an undersea volcano sprang forth from the deep - quite spectacularly, we have new footage of another undersea eruption. Fukutoku-Okanoba, off the coast of Minami Iwo, started to erupt yesterday (or, at least, erupt enough to manifest a plume out of the ocean). A Japanese coast guard vessel was able to capture the plume on video as it reached 100 m / ~300 feet. The plume appears to be dominated by white steam along with some grey ash mixed in.…
Sakurajima in Japan, erupting in December 2009. Image courtesy of Photovolcanica.com Richard Roscoe at Photovolcanica.com has just posted two great sites focusing on two of the most active volcanoes in Japan: Sakurajima and Suwanosejima. These volcanoes are almost constantly erupting with small strombolian events punctuated by occasional plinian eruptions. Sakurajima is on the island of Kyushu (well, technically Kagoshima, but right off the coast of Kyushu) less than 10 miles / 20 km from the city of Kagoshima. The volcano has been erupting since 1955 with both explosive and effusive…
All the news to start the week: Galeras with a grey ash-and-steam plume behind Pasto, Colombia. Well, after my article on Friday about Colombian volcanoes, Galeras must have decided it was left out. The volcano has been placed back at alert level Orange/II (eruption in days to weeks). An increase in seismicity and sulfur dioxide emissions (in spanish) prompted INGEOMINAS to put Galeras back on higher alert, but now the country has two volcanoes (Galeras and Huila) that could be erupting in the near future. Back in the Philippines, there is new evidence that Mayon has a new dome forming at the…
Somehow I missed a week of the SI/USGS Weekly Volcano Activity Reports and almost missed another. Here is this week's update! Highlights (not including Chaiten, Soufriere Hills or Cleveland) include: The alert level at Galeras in Colombia was raised to Red after an explosion on September 30 and returned to orange ... and then yellow ... after activity tapered. Sakurajima in Japan produced 1.8-4.3 km / 6,000-14,000-tall ash-and-steam plumes, along with incandescent tephra that was thrown almost two kilometers from the vent. Multiple steam-and-ash plumes reached 4.3 km / 14,000 feet at Langila…
Even the SI/USGS Weekly Volcano Report seems a little light -- welcome to the dog days of summer! Highlights from this week's report include: "Thunderous sounds", incandescence and small plumes (hundreds of meters) with more frequent seismicity at Ibu in Indonesia. A sharp increase in sulfur dioxide output was noted at Mayon in the Philippines on August 4 - from ~700-900 tonnes/day to almost 2,000 tonnes/day. ~3,000 meter/10,000 foot gas-and-ash plume from Bagana in Papua New Guinea - you can see it on this recent NASA Earth Observatory image. Ash/gas plumes from Sakurajima in Japan rose to ~…
This is likely my last update until the end of next week sometime, so feel free to use it for any new volcano news you might see. Look for the Erebus Volcano Profile to be posted on Friday sometime, followed by the vote for the next Profile. Next time I post I'll be (back) in the eastern time zone! With that, I leave you with the latest USGS/SI Weekly Volcano Report. Highlights (not counting Shiveluch) include: Small ash plumes were spotted several times from Batu Tara in Indonesia. Explosions, ashfall and earthquakes were reported at Nevado del Huila in Colombia. There were reports of…
Your volcano news! Thanks, as always, to the USGS/SI Global Volcanism Program. Highlights include: The alert level at Sakurajima was raised from 2 to 3 by the Japanese Meteorological Agency. This was due to the increasing frequency of explosions at the volcano, some of which produced ash plumes up to 1.8-2.7 km / 6-9,000 feet. Ash was reported up to 3 km away from Ibu in Indonesia. However, officials in Indonesia lowered the alert from 3 to 2, but tourists are still restricted from going with 2 km of the volcano. Lots of activity at Shiveluch in Kamchatka. You can see some of the activity in…
All the volcano news that is fit to print, all thanks to the USGS/Smithsonian GVP! Highlights (not include Manda Hararo, Kilauea and Mayon) include San Miguel in El Salvador has been experiencing increased seismicity. The last time the volcano erupted was in 2002. A pilot spotted a ~10,000 foot / 3 km ash plume emanating from Anak Krakatau in Indonesia. Another ash plume, this time at Ubinas, Peru, was spotted by pilots rising to ~6.7-9.1 km / 20-30,000 feet. Explosions were heard from Suwanose-jima in Japan, but no associated ash plumes were spotted. It sounds like a lava dome has been…
A week's worth of volcano news in one sitting, thanks to the USGS and Smithsonian Inst.'s Global Volcanism Program. Thanks again, Sally Kuhn Sennert for putting it together! This week's highlights include: Small ash column spotted at Manam, Papua New Guinea. We talked about Manam not too long ago. More details of the ongoing submarine eruption at West Mata in the Mariana Islands. The lava dome continues to grow on Redoubt, Alaska with no real collapse yet. Pilots spotted small (2.1 km / 7,000 foot) steam/ash plumes at Suwanosejima, Japan. 5-6 km / 18-25,000 foot ash plumes were produced by…
Here's the latest news from the USGS and SI Global Volcanism Program. It might not record every little volcanic noise in the world each week, but nothing like getting all the major volcanic events summarized on a weekly basis. Highlights this week (not including Nyiragongo, Redoubt and Galeras): The eruption at Rinjani in Indonesia continues, with elevated seismicity and 300-600 meter plumes. Sporadic strombolian eruptions from the Crater C at Arenal, Costa Rica (since late April) High seismicity, 100 meter domes and continued dome collapses continue at the two domes growing at Chaiten, Chile…
I am back from the ion microprobe lab at Stanford after a few days of data collection, so I'll be trying to get back on posting schedule here at Eruptions. UPDATE 3/10/2009 12:45PM: Here is a little (and I mean a little) more information, mostly adding that the local residents have been given a "warning" about the activity. However, I did notice this morning at Sakurajima in Japan erupted after rumbling over the weekend. There aren't many details about the eruption beyond the fact that volcanic chunks were thrown a few kilometers from the vent, but the BBC does have some nice video of the…